I am a mom of 5 children. Four active boys followed by an adorable girl full of personality! This is a blog that tells it like it is, no sugar coating here. Some topics will make you feel warm and fuzzy; others will make you want to run and hide. Welcome to my world.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

To Pitch or not to Pitch

So there is this story about a little leaguer who is being banned from baseball because his skill might frighten the rest of the children. My BIL postedon his blog about this and it got me thinking... so cast your vote, I am interested to know what you all think.

3 comments:

I wouldn't want my kid to play against that kid...too dangerous. The problem is the leage needs to develop a more advanced league that better players and faster pitchers can be in. Getting out of the way of a pitch is a skill that needs developing....and beginning players often can't do it. Two players in our kids leage a year or two ago had nearly life threatening situations from being hit by pitches. It is not reasonable to say that the kid will never hit someone...even MLB pitchers can't control it that well, plus some beginning players get themselves hit by their lack of skills (such as standing over the plate or moving over the plate).

This is a leage problem, not a individual kid problem, but I agree with the league that this one kid with his fast pitching could developmentally cause problems for a whole league of players. But there are other potential answers rather than banning him or the team from competition...could impose pictching speed limits (there are otehr ways to pitch skillfully other than just pitching fast), could impose limits on the number of innings one pitcher could pitch in a week. Could give players the election of taking a voluntary out rather than batting against a certain pitcher.

I agree that they should probably form a more advanced little leage team, but you also have to understand that if you want your kids to play sports then they are inevitably going to get hurt, eventually. I just can't see squelching this boys talent because it is hard or worriesome for others. Wouldn't it be discouraging others to try to get better and succeed at what they do. Maybe this boy would inspire the rest of his team mates and also other teams.

I would be scared for my kid to go up to bat against this kid, but I think that's just the risk you take with sports.

Simon Birch killed his best friend's mom with a baseball, and he was handicapped... It is entirely impossible for anybody to die in a freak accident. That's no reason to punish this kid. If the league had a higher level for this kid to play at, I say move him up (especially if the league has [previously] established rules to that effect), but to tell him he has to limit himself to the level of his competition completely goes against the reason to play a "competitive" sport. I also think that Tim is probably right. Most parents wouldn't want their kid to play against this pitcher. However, not wanting it, but accepting it is completely different than complaining to the league about it...I think if a kid doesn't want to stand in the batter's box and take the pitch, then Tim is right... he should take an out.